Ingredient: Banana

The banana is invaluable in inflammation of all kinds. For this reason it is very useful in cases of typhoid fever, gastritis, peritonitis, etc., and may constitute the only food allowed for a time.

Not only does it actually subdue the inflammation of the intestines, but, in the opinion of at least one authority, as it consists of 95 per cent. nutriment, it does not possess sufficient waste matter to irritate the inflamed spots.

But great care should be taken in its administration. The banana should be thoroughly sound and ripe, and all the stringy portion carefully removed. It should then be mashed and beaten to a cream. In severe cases I think it is better to give this neat, but if not liked by the patient a little lemon juice, well mixed in, may render it more acceptable. It may also be taken with fresh cream.

A friend who has had a very wide experience in illness told me that she was once hurriedly sent for at night to a girl suffering from peritonitis. Not knowing what she might, or might not, find in the way of remedies when she arrived at her destination, my friend took with her some strong barley water, bananas, and an enema syringe. She found the girl lying across the bed screaming, obviously in agony. First of all my friend administered a warm water enema. A pint of plain warm water was injected first, and after this had come away as much warm water as could be got in was injected and then allowed to come away. The object of this was to thoroughly wash out the bowels. Then the barley water was warmed, the bananas mashed, beaten to cream, and mixed in with the barley water. A soothing nutrient lotion was thus prepared, and as much as the patient could bear comfortably was injected in the bowel and retained as long as possible. The effect was magical. The pain subsided, and the patient ultimately recovered.

In the absence of perfectly ripe bananas, baked bananas may be used. But, although better than no fruit at all, cooked fruit is never so valuable as the fresh fruit, if only the latter be perfectly ripe. Bananas should be baked in their skins, and the stringy pieces carefully removed before eating. From twenty minutes to half an hour’s slow cooking is required.

Bananas are excellent food for anæmic persons on account of the iron they contain. A very palatable way of taking them is with fresh orange juice.

A comparatively old-fashioned remedy, for sprained or bruised places that show a tendency to become inflamed is to apply a plaster of banana skin.

Source: Food Remedies: Facts About Foods And Their Medicinal Uses, Florence Daniel

Lemon Cream for Sunburn and Freckles

Put two spoonfuls of sweet cream into half a pint of new milk, squeeze into it the juice of a lemon, add half a glass of genuine French brandy, a little alum and loaf sugar; boil the whole, skim it well, and when cool it is fit for use.

Source: The Ladies’ Book Of Useful Information

A Water for a Consumption, or for a Brain that is weak

Take Cream (or new milk) and Claret-wine, of each three pints, of Violet-flowers, Bugloss and Borage-flowers, of each a spoonful, Comfrey, Knot-grass, and Plantane of these half a handful, three or four Pome-waters sliced, a stick of Liquorish, some Pompion seeds and strings; put to this a Cock that hath been chased and beaten before he was killed, dress it as to boil, and parboil it until there be no blood in it; then put them in a pot, and set them over your Limbeck, and the soft fire; draw out a pottle of water, then put your water in a Pipkin over a Charcoal fire, and boil it a while, dissolve therein six ounces of white Sugar-candy, & two penny weight of Saffron; when it is cold strain it into a glass, & let the Patient drink three or four spoonfuls three or four times a day blood-warm; your Cock must be cut into small pieces, & the bones broken, and in case the flowers and herbs are bard to come by, a spoonful of their stilled waters are to be used.

Source: A Queen’s Delight: Or, The Art of Preserving, Conserving and Candying, Nathaniel Brooke

Cough Mixture III

To relieve a severe attack of coughing take one tablespoonful of glycerine previously mixed with the same quantity of hot milk or cream.

Source: Home Made Wines, Syrups and Cordials, The National Federation of Women’s Institutes

Lameness, Plantain Leaves and Cream for

“Make ointment from plantain leaves, simmered in sweet cream or fresh butter. This is very cooling.”

Source: Mother’s Remedies: Over One Thousand Tried and Tested Remidies from Mothers of the United States and Canada, T. J. Ritter

Dysentery, Sweet Cream for

“One or two teaspoonfuls of thick cream every hour. Three doses is usually sufficient. (This remedy proved successful with my baby when all others failed).”

Source: Mother’s Remedies: Over One Thousand Tried and Tested Remidies from Mothers of the United States and Canada, T. J. Ritter